The centerpiece of the plan calls for allowing small businesses, self-employed workers and the uninsured to join the same large health plan that covers state employees -- in order to drive down health care costs.

Struggling small businesses, often with fewer than 25 employees, currently are forced to pay exorbitant rates to insure their workers, Curry said, and the reason is not that people in small companies get sick more often.

``The real reason is the same reason that groceries cost more in the ghetto,'' Curry said. ``Some people are easier to gouge. My plan ends the price-gouging.''

His long-range goal is to establish health care coverage for everyone in the state, he said.

Curry first introduced the expansion of the state employee plan when he served as state comptroller, but said he then lacked the authority to unilaterally implement his plan. He proposed it again when he first ran for governor, but the idea has not been adopted by the legislature in the years since.

``I first proposed this back in 1991 -- 11 years ago,'' Curry told reporters in the lobby of his Hartford campaign headquarters. ``Had I been elected in 1994, we'd have this now. We'd certainly be in a purchasing cooperative and saving 6 percent of the cost of prescription drugs right now.''

The 21-page plan notes that the current comptroller, Democrat Nancy Wyman, has opened up the state employees' health plan to allow eligibility for community action agencies and not-for-profit organizations. Curry, who testified annually in front of the legislature about his plan when he served as comptroller, intends to build on that expansion to create an even larger pool, he said.

Connecticut should join with 40 other states in a compact, headed by Minnesota, to minimize paperwork and cooperatively purchase the drugs, Curry said. Some of the programs, however, have not been fully implemented because multiple states have been sued by the pharmaceutical companies. The companies claim that some states are illegally expanding the Medicaid program by offering drugs to families that currently earn too much money to qualify for the low-income program.

On the night before Curry announced his plan, Republican Gov. John G. Rowland began airing a new commercial that focuses on three health care issues. The ad touts his HUSKY plan that provides state-paid insurance for more than 50,000 children and also refers to the ConnPACE program that is designed to ``help hold down the high cost of prescription drugs.'' The ad also mentions additional funding for assisted living, which Rowland has pushed as an alternative to more expensive nursing-home care.

``At every age, nothing is more important than the health of our families,'' the commercial says.